Continuing with my Classical Reinterpretation series, we have La Grande Odalisque, by Jean-August-Dominique Ingres.
Ingres was a French Neoclassical painter who lived from 1780 to 1867. While his early work featured classical themes and imagery, he is most well known for his portraiture work. During his career, he shared fame as France's greatest painter with his self-proclaimed nemesis, Eugène Delacroix. This rivalry stemmed from the two artists differing artisti philiosophy. While Ingres was a Neoclassical painter, Delacroix was part of the growing Romanticism movement. This rivalry often spilled over to social gatherings and parties where the two artists often quarreled over the true meaning of art and style. Despite Ingres's neoclassical style, many critics of the time viewed his painting, La Grande Odalisque, as a shift from traditional Neoclassicism to Romanticism, which had been growing in popularity.
Painted in 1814, La Grande Odalisque, was met with harsh criticism upon its release, mostly because of the anatomical errors in the painting which include an elongated vertebrae, mismatched arm lengths, and an impossible twist of the pelvis. But over time, the piece has become famous because of the errors.
The painting was comissioned by Napoleon's sister, Queen Caroline Murat of Naples, and painted with oil on canvas. The painting depicts a concuibine languidly lounging, albiet in a distorted pose.
Today, the painting is on display at the Louvre, in Paris, France.
And here is my interpretation of the painting:
This is one of my favourite images from the series. I've always loved La Grande Odalisque since I was first introduced to it in high school art class. Even though the original proportions are off, I always loved the composition and the decadent imagery surrounding the model.
The model in this shot is the same girl who posed for my Birth of Venus reinterpretation. She was a friend of a friend, and really saved my skin after numerous failed attempts to find a model willing to bare some skin for these two photos.
This one isn't a composite, like most of the others, and it actually required the least amount of editing. I remember I was so happy with the outcome from this photo that I might've cried a little, I was just so happy with the outcome. The lighting, the pose, the props, everything came together beautifully.
The props were the hardest thing to find. It was a lot of drapery, and I had a problem finding it all in the same shade of blue that was in the original, so I changed things around a bit to fit what I had. Overall, I was very pleased with this image, definitely one of my favourites.
Next, I'll be talking about Madonna of the Lilies.
If you're interested in seeing other photos in this series, you can find them here.
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And, you can check out my debut novel, The Children of Gods and Monsters, in the Amazon store here.
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